The Weekly Forum - 3 October
07 oktober 2025 | Forum for Democracy Intl
‘Now, what I want is Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Stick to Facts, Sir!’ Mr Gradgrind in Dickens’ Hard Times is an absurd figure because he, like the positivists of which he is a caricature, imagines that life can be reduced to administration. What these people do not understand is that there can be disagreement not just about the interpretation of facts on the basis that the ‘facts’ have been established. Closing off the discussion on the basis that ‘facts’ have been established is ridiculous if those ‘facts’ are disputed. It is even more ridiculous when the same person also refuses to accept certain facts which even he does not doubt. This is what happened in a recent exchange between Lidewij de Vos, FVD’s lead candidate, and a progressive leftist Green member of Parliament, Jesse Klaver. Klaver refused to accept that the arrival of 1.5 million immigrants into the Netherlands had anything to do with the housing crisis; but when Lidewij disputed the existence of a nitrogen problem (the basis for green policy in the country) Klaver deplored the fact that in today’s politics there is not even agreement about these so-called ‘facts’. So on the one hand he refuses to accept an obvious fact – immigration puts pressure on housing – and refuses to debate a policy, in this case on nitrogen, because it is allegedly based on ‘facts’. Pff.
What could be more at the root of economics than money? FVD party leader Thierry Baudet surprised the Lower Chamber recently with a magisterial lecture about economics - and specifically about inflation and fiat money. These issues are never raised in European politics even though there is endless discussion about monetary policy and interest rates. Monetary creation is hardly ever mentioned – at least by politicians – as a cause of rising house prices and stock market booms. Yet there is nothing more fundamental than the ability to create money out of thin air. For more than 50 years, ever since the last definitive abandonment of the gold standard in 1971, this is what the world has been doing – with catastrophic consequences. The debt burden is now unbearable in many Western countries and will likely lead to even more inflation. Only FVD goes to the very root of the problems, instead of dancing around silly debates about how to implement or whether to delay this or that policy. Only FVD seeks to solve problems at their root, instead of attacking the symptoms like Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party which recently announced it intends to limit inflation by imposing price controls - a totally self-defeating Socialist fantasy.
And while we are on the subject of gold, why is European gold still stored in America? Is it even still there? Bring it back! And why shouldn’t people be able to open ordinary bank accounts in gold? Only specialised companies offer this. And what about Bitcoin? That has become part of the furniture of the financial system and should logically be integrated into the reserves of central banks. All these things Thierry Baudet proposed in a series of motions put before the Dutch parliament recently. No other party comes close to making such interesting and novel proposals.
If you want a comprehensive overview of the philosophical world view underlying FVD’s policies, there is no better tool than the series of videos Thierry Baudet made last year, The Movement. It would be difficult to find another party in Europe which can claim anything like this sort of intellectual depth.